Wutai Mountain

[Sin]

"I don't know whats eating me. It may be that I do not know anything except war and fighting, I was created by Shinra, you are related to me, or it may be from merging with the demon on the airship." Sin said through clenched teeth. His knee was drawn up, and his arm was clutched around it, his hand squeezing his leg to keep from instictual movements against the pain.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Kadaj finally finished the procedure. "There. Better?"

Reno made his way haltingly up the slope, carrying Shelke on his back as the loose rubble shifted under his feet. "For a skinny kid, you sure do weigh a heap, yo."

"Cybernetic implants are fused with--"

"You were supposed to get insulted by that, y'know! Geez, pretend to be a girl already!"

Shelke had no comment.

****

Inside the ship, strange things were happening. Rank smells were rising. Stirrings and chatterings were going up. Vapors poured out of everywhere.

Vincent surged towards the computer and plunged his prosthetic hand into the computer's innards. Loz started. "Wait--"

Too late. A great current, like electricity, pulsed into him and blew him back.

"Vincent!" Cloud bent over him.

Vincent groaned. "I'm fine, I'm fine..." His arm, however, was sizzling slightly.

And all the while, Ami's shadow remained murky within the computer core.

****

Reno finally reached Sin. "After this, I wanna vacation, yo," he moaned. He began to heal the boy's injuries, one more time...

A weird smell invaded his nose. "Ew. What the h**l you been eating, kid?"

Murky images began to float before Sin's eyes. Stars, constellations, mind-numbing distances... planets illuminated in different colors...

Kadaj went rigid. He saw what Sin could see, but much, much more clearly. And what's more, he actually knew what it meant. "..." His jaw kept working, but the words were inaudible.

Reno gave him a funny look. "Never knew you were into impressions, K. What's that, like... a blowfish?"

Shelke watched him mouth intently. "Silence," she insisted. "I must have concentration to read his lips properly." She tilted her head. "But he seems to be speaking a language unfamiliar to me."

****

"What are you doing to her?!" Loz insisted of the hologram he alone could see as enormous interstellar maps flashed around them.

"She will not be harmed. In spite of her inferior genetics, her memetic imprints still match those of a Seraph Matron. Her mind and body will be able to accomodate the strain of interfacing with this system," Tiamet replied calmly.

Loz was totally unable to understand the first word of what she'd said. "Screw that! Let her out right now!"

"Unable to comply. This would be extremely hazardous to her sanity. The germination sequence must first be completed. Further, she has requested a great deal of information only this system can supply. This information is being supplied to others bearing Seraphic patterns in the immediate area as per her query. This is a tremendous strain upon our CPU capability."

The fluids in the tubes surrounding them slowly drained away. The creatures inside began to struggle against their restraints.

Cloud and the others were getting extremely uneasy. Few of these creatures looked friendly. "We have to find away to put them under again! This is getting dangerous!"

"Your companion's request is impossible to carry out without the express request of the Matron," Tiamet reminded.

Loz was frustrated almost to the point of tears. "You're not making any sense! Let her go!"

"Unable to comply."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Cloud started making his way out, injuries and all, yanking Vincent with him. "Come on," he growled through gritted teeth.

Vincent continued fighting him off. "I'm not leaving," he snapped.

"It's not safe in here!"

The computer's mass suddenly opened. Ami fell out limply, her head clanging on the metallic floor.

A short wail of panic, and Loz was cradling her gently, nudging her to wake up. The creatures around her trilled and howled for release, thumping their transparent, thick cage walls.

When he looked up, the Tiamet was gone. Everything was gone, except the people he'd arrived with. They hung in a blank, dark space.

****

Reno and Shelke blinked. The ship, the cave, all had disappeared. "What the s**t--"

A faint rumbling was heard in the distance, and a dim glow came from somewhere...

****

"What is all this?" Loz mused, frozen in shock. Ami stirred slightly and opened her eyes-- which glowed with a sheen of shockingly bright silver.

"The Motherworld as it was the day it died. A world of darkness orbiting a dying star," her voice droned soulllessly. "Fierce battle had erupted. This was to decide the fate of the planet's largest continent, shared by the two savage clans of the Patrans and the Jenovans. To increase their power and territory, they had spent thousands of years and millions of lives fighting for this land, in a never-ending blood feud."

Dim outlines began to take shape. Hulking men and fierce women, clothed in thick metallic plates of armor...

Ami droned on. "Many Jenovans had been claimed by the Memetic Plague, spawned by the Patrans' dark arts. But today, the Calamity plotted her ultimate revenge."

Suddenly, the black earth below cracked open. The fungus and insects eking out life on this earth fell twittering into the crevasse, which glowed a bright, brutal green.

"Jenova had seized control of the planet's very soul. She had touched the Lifestream of Asak Odnum, and it left her changed forever. Before, she was merely consumed with revenge for her people. Thirsty with ambition to surpass her ancestors. But now... she became warped, twisted, all but insane. She intended to destroy her enemies completely with the destructive force of the very planet itself."

Scores of Patrans tumbled into the crevasse, screaming in despair and terror, their armor melting as the heat of the planet rushed up to meet them.

"At least, so it was told."

The rage of battle dimmed.

"In truth, another unleashed the power of this world, and sacrificed her children, her nation, her very birthworld, to take control of the survivors, and become ultimate ruler."

A luminescent tree stood on a hill over the battle. And underneath, a savagely beautiful creature with bright amber eyes and a dark sword etched with a flower, stained green by Jenovan blood.

"Patra, Matron of the clan bearing her name. She destroyed the motherworld, and all but a few of her heirs. She saved a select few alive, sending them to the stars in seed ships like this one. Only they bore her secret. They were charged with finding the scattered Seraphs who fled the dying Motherworld, and finding a new planet where she could start anew as ultimate ruler. But..."

An extremely elongated sword suddenly pierced the abominable creature from behind. Patra shuddered once, gasped twice, and fell limp, revealing a familiar face behind her.

"Her plan unraveled. Her rival survived."

Jenova scowled at the dead body and spat on it. Thousands of streaks of green rose into the sky as ships full of refugees ran from the planet's death throes. Then, a shower of green surrounded her, and the earth heaved. Flung from the hilltop, she flew helplessly into darkness.

"Through the stars, her prone remains traveled. Landing, by complete coincidence... here."

Curious chatterings in a foreign tongue surrounded a large crater. At the center, a mangled body lay, lifeless eyes exposed to a light sprinkling of snow. Patterings of bare feet approached, and large, curious eyes peered at the body. Gently, it was lifted from its stony tomb and carried away.

"She was revived by the Cetra, who tried to help her assimilate into this new world. Several of the other remains brought with her also thrived with their help, such as the glowing trees of the Sleeping forest. But she did not, could not trust them."

Jenova, leaning on a crutch, stood apart from the brightly clothed Cetra as they exclaimed over the glowing saplings they had just planted around their city. Cheerings rose from a crowd as a tall, handsome figure moved through their midst, wearing a beautiful smile. His blond hair set him apart from his other, dark-headed comrades. In a tongue too ancient to decipher, he gave a short speech, followed by deafening cries of approval.

Her eyes followed him intently. When he finished his words and descended through the group, he paused by her. He spoke in a tongue many of the group recognized as Seraphic.

Are you settling in well?

Yes, thanks to you.

You flatter me. Your injuries seem to be mending nicely.

Quick healing runs in my family.

He smiled. I know it does. He walked away.

"She trusted, in truth, only one Cetra, one meant to rule them. The ruler, however, was pledged to love his people, and them alone. When he broke his word and defiled himself with her, when he moved to gain more power and cover his guilt, he was destroyed."

A dark fire moved through the forests outside the capital. Only the glowing saplings, impervious to temperature, remained unharmed. A wild scream and a thunderous cheer rose through the smoke and darkness.

Hidden in a grove of young Illuminati trees, Jenova hid herself, waiting for the massacre to end, the death of the Sun King and his loyal followers. She waited... and wept.

"Again consumed by vengeance, she moved to destroy them all and people this planet with her own kind."

Again, the Lifestream erupted from the earth. The Seraph scattered in terror, wailing as desolation descended. Jenova only laughed, cruelly and coldly, as the capital was swallowed up. Her laughter echoed ironically through her house... as a few lone warriors crept inside. Green light danced on their fingers, waiting to silence her mirth in a throat of stone.

"But in turn, she too was destroyed. Nothing of her remained... but a child born of her descent with the Sun King."

A young girl peered into the dark with bright green eyes. Surely saving the baby in her arms was a sin, but to leave it behind for consumption in the inferno once known as Jenova's lair... she could not submit to such cruelty.

She cooed gently to the child and spirited it away into the night.

"A chimera, born of Ancient and Seraph blood. This blood was slowly diluted, but her legacy of misery lived on in the family ultimately born of her sin--"

"The Shinra," Cloud and Kadaj both realized out loud.

Kadaj tightened his fists. "So they ARE part of us after all."

Ami was unperturbed. Catatonic, she carried on. "They never lost their drive to recover the gifts their ancestors once took for granted. Namely, the ability to alter their physicality by controlling their genetic code, and to communicate with the Lifestream itself. Hence, their extensive genetic and memetic experiments. Thus does the cycle of war come full circle."

The star map appeared once again. "Look at the heavens, and see that our family is one of survivors."

Planets by the score appeared. Some were lit in colors-- vibrant purple, red, amber, or blue. More had combinations of the four. Others were simply white, hanging in the void.

"Each colored planet holds our brothers and sisters in substantial populations. Or at least, they did... now, all these should be on their way..." The maps zeroed in on a single, blue-lit planet. "...to Advent."

The map faded. The ship and cave reappeared. Ami fell limp in her brother's arms.

Reno shook his head. "Whoa. What a trip..."

Kadaj got up and stormed away. "Before you say another word, idiot, I want to know if you have ANY idea what this means."

"Huh?"

He slammed his fist against a boulder, cracking it in two. "OUR FAMILY WAS FRAMED."

[Sin]

Sin was silent watching. He slowly got up, testing it. From where he was he could faintly hear Ami's voice, and from what he did pick up, Ami's family, Vincent, Cloud, Himself, Shinra, and those experimented on by Shinra were more or less related to one another. He started heading towards the sound, helping Shelke, using Reno as a support. This was some wierd sh*t, stuff he would need time to be able to process, something he could not do now.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

"But don't you see how much sense this makes?" a voice rasped from a few feet away.

Kadaj spotted Yazoo, stirring amid the stones where his prone body lay. "Brother!"

Yazoo slowly sat up. "Calm down, Kadaj. I'm all right." Even so, his weakened body shook with the effort of holding itself upright. "The cycles are so painfully obvious, so unceasingly repititious. Cast Xima as the Calamity, Shinra as the Sun King, and the pattern falls into place."

Kadaj looked tense. "And what might our position in that pattern be?"

"Her persecutors, who ultimately suffered the bitter fate of extinction."

Reno made a face. "Ouch."

"Extinction," they heard someone snort. Cloud, slowly pulling himself out of the wreckage, his bleeding slowed to a light ooze, wore a sour expression. "Evolution can bite my a**. I don't submit to that 'survival of the fittest' bull."

Yazoo drew in a breath with considerable effort. "Be that as it may, Cloud, we must recognize that history is repeating itself, and only decisive action will save us now."

Reno set Sin aside and helped Cloud out of the wreck, sealing his wounds in the process. "Yo, dude, I need a second opinion here. Was that not the most trippy--"

"Not now," Cloud snapped, crawling out of the broken opening. "I came out of here to tell you Ami's out cold. After the computer grabbed her--"

Kadaj had missed everything after "Ami" and "out cold".

****

"Ami? Ami, wake up."

"Stop shaking her!"

"I am not!"

"Just give her here and--"

"Knock it off!"

"Let her go!"

"Imbecile!"

"Idiot!"

"ENOUGH." Vincent had listened the brothers bickering longer than he could take. "I'll only say this once. Set her down and (I can barely believe I'm saying this) let Reno take care of her."

"Yeah, that's right, let the Doc work his magic," Reno piped in.

"Shut up, Reno," the conscious population of the room chorused.

The boys looked between each other and finally, reluctantly, set her down. The killing glares they gave Vincent failed to disturb him.

Reno advanced through the wreckage and examined her. After a few moments, however, the usual mako-fueled healing did not occur.

"Well, what's the problem, 'Doc'?" Kadaj asked sarcastically. "Looks like that magic of yours isn't up to snuff."

"I'm just tired, OK?" Reno snapped back. "Between all the rest of you, I'm ready to drop dead, yo. Look, she's just unconscious. Give 'er, like, two hours and she oughta be up and around, good as new. Three hours, tops."

****
THREE HOURS LATER
****

Reno gulped. "This is not going to end well for me, is it?"

"Nope," Rude replied as three cranky looking Remnants glared out of the room where Ami's lifeless body still lay. The room which Tifa had been forced to evacuate to give them room, which had made her also very very unhappy. In a hotel getting increasingly louder about the debt the party was steadily accumulating.

This is, indeed, going to end very badly.

((To Wutai Inn))